The Steadfast Dahl Soldier
by Sebastian Cusstellanos
Summary: Moxxi needed to take care of her new underdome, so she decided to leave someone else in charge of her bar in Sanctuary. The last thing she heard of the bar was that the Commando stopped by rather frequently.


Despite having a stable position in Sanctuary and had been residing there for a long time, Moxxi couldn't stay, she needed a new underdome to quench the thirst for naked flesh and explosions. And that's what she got, Torgue's Arena, ripped straight from Mr. Torgue's hands (though she wouldn't really call it "stealing" but rather "smart dealership"), he didn't seem to mind though, since the dude himself only cares about flexing his muscles and BB. Her newly acquired underdome was a booming success, but controlling it remotely can be quite a pain and she had only a handful of monitors to observe the arena.

And so, she decided to move, the only problem was that the bar she hosted in Sanctuary would be shut down and sort of, kill the reputation of the small town. She was lucky to have a replacement, the new owner of Moxxi's soon gained some popularity amongst the place. One of the last thing she heard of the bar was that the Commando, one of the Vault Hunters, came by more often than usual.

"Hm, I wonder why…"

It's only been Day 2 of the bar's reopening and Axton already made his 6th visit, the other Vault Hunters are kinda irritated by this because everytime they travel back to Sanctuary, he just has to make an excuse to come into the bar, slowing the team down. Not that he didn't go to it multiple times before Moxxi left, but it's just not as frequent as of now. Gaige is obviously the most annoyed since she and Axton are besties, and the way he fights bandits seems rushed and not passionately like he used to, hell he didn't even deploy his beloved turret once. One of his most noticeable traits is his heavy turret, and he didn't use it, this visibly upset Gaige, although watching Axton blasting off nomads and midgets with just a Torgue shotgun to get things done quickly is pretty impressive. Even so, seeing him like that is unusual.

The rest of the team knew that Moxxi had someone to run the joint for her in Sanctuary. Not much is known about him other than he called himself Roxx and dressed up like a flamboyant gigolot. Biggest guess is that he's related to the bimbo in someway, another child even? From what the other civilians had said, he looks rather normal than whatever the hell are those grunts in the Hodunk clan, and is incredibly handsome. Well, better than having Innuendobot running the place, that loaderbot was weird as hell.

"That Roxx guy maybe the reason why Axton keeps going to the bar often" Maya exclaims.

"Whaaaaat? No way! Being his besties I knew that he only had two things on his mind: Guns. And ladies."

"...and sometimes dudes" Zer0 pops in, amuses at what he just said.

"Gaige, you've only been friends with him for like 3 months, he might has some other sides that none else has seen. Hell, I saw him FLIRTED with KRIEG once."

The blue haired siren turns her gaze over the bloodlusting psycho, who is playing with his sharp buzzaxe. The meat man seems pleased.

"Alright, alright, jeez no need to be shoutin' like that grandma, I'll come over the bar and see what's up with him then." Gaige hotfoots out of the Crimson Raider HQ and makes her way to the bar.

Roxx, huh? Who does he think he is? she thought as she storms into the joint. There he is, the Commando himself, sitting in front of the counter having some shots… while staring longingly at the flamboyant bartender?

"Axton?" The ex-soldier jolts and turns back, only to meet Gaige standing cross armed behind him.

"Uh, oh hey Gaige, um… Whatcha doin' here?"

"I feel like that's suppose to be my question? The hell are you doing here then? We have tons of quests on hold right now."

"Oh, uh, just, having a little rest y'know? Being a Vault Hunter is tiring sometimes."

"To the point that ya have to come to Moxxi's bar for the 6th time in just two days? Pu-lease. Is it because of this Roxx dude?" The Mechromancer glances at the new owner of the bar, now that she has a good look on him, is quite stunned of what she is seeing.

Just like what the others have said, he is super-duper handsome, and that's not even an exaggeration, he wears an attire exactly like Moxxi with the only difference being him having the cleavage all the way down… to his abs, and also uses heavy make-up like the bimbo. Kind of weird, not saying that Moxxi was normal in anyways.

The bartender starts to talk, snapping Gaige out of her mind "Are you his little sister? Caring for your big brother here aren't you, sugar."

God he even TALKS like Moxxi.

"No! Absolutely not! I'm just trying to get this big doofus back on track!"

"Well, I wouldn't mind if he stays a bit longer, he's been giving me an awful lot of tips." Roxx shots a wink at Axton, making the guy swells up.

"So most of the prize money went into this dude's pocket?"

"Uh…" The Commando obviously has no excuse of what he's been doing.

"Ugh, just, come here." Gaige forcefully pinches his ear using her mechanical arm and drags him back into the HQ. "Ow! Ouch! Hey!" the man yelps along the way while awkwardly waves goodbye to Roxx.

Gaige bursts into the central room while still having the poor Commando's ear in her grasp, releasing him once the big idiot is in everyone's sight.

"Well, you two seems to had a bit of a fight." Maya is the first to comment about this, rather amused of what she's seeing right now.

"Bah, let's just get this over with, my señoritas are waiting to shoot somebody in the face." Salvador walks in from the balcony, not really interested of what's about to happen. Zer0 snoops his way in, standing besides Mordecai in the corner, flashing a ";-)" emote on his visor.

"C'mon guys, I was just having a drink-"

"He has a crush on Roxx." Gaige straight up calls Axton out with no mercy whatsoever.

The entire room goes silent.

And then Salvador bursts into laughter.

God fucking damn it.

Axton is now as red as a tomato, the poor dude just wants to stand in front of a bandit tech and gets run over by it, or having a goliath gouges his eyes out (bonus points for both). What's worse than having your teammates laughing at you, even better when your least favorite is rolling on the floor, laughing his fucking ass out. Teaming up with these people was a mistake.

"Oh my gosh, Sal, you get the HECK outta here!"

"Easy, Gaige. Salvador, you go down stairs and do things that you Mexicans always do."

The buff midget brushes off with a "Meh, whatever." and goes down over to Marcus to buy some guns.

Now that the room is silent, again, the Siren looks at the flustered Commando, twirling his thumbs like crazy, being embarrassed more than ever. As the "wise one of the team", Maya has no choice but to step in and help their goof of a leader.

"Welp, I knew it. So, love at first sight?"

Axton just simply nods at her while looking down to the floor.

"Love is distracting/ Our quests are on a hold up/ Get over with it."

"Thank you Zer0, very cool." Gaige sasses at the Assassin, he returns her back with a "XD" emote.

"Being in love is not a bad thing, but you have to understand that we are Vault Hunters, not ordinary mercenaries, we move constantly from one place to another. We barely have any time for personal issues or desire, so you gotta put this aside and focus on your main reason being here-"

"Since when did you become so wise, grandma?"

"Gaige, if you could just-"

"Why not just let him be in a relationship? I see no problem with Lilith and Roland. He have needs too, amigo."

"Are you guys gonna let me help out or not?"

"Nah, I think we got enuff."

"Ugh, fine, do what you want." Maya rolls her eyes and walks out to the balcony.

The Commando wants to thank his little friend for saving his ass from a boring lecture, but can't.

"I guess we should just, hook him up. But he's gotta be more focused after he gets into the first base. I swear if he doesn't I'll have DT split him in half."

Axton looks at her as if he never seen her like this before, but smiles anyway.

"If you ended up getting married… Can I be the bridesmaid? Oh please lemme be the bridesmaid, pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!"

"Uh… Yeah, I guess."

"Heck yeah! You are free to go now."

The soldier pops right back up like a skag spotting it's prey and quickly runs to the bar soon after having his permission to get down with the bartender, leaving trails of smokes behind him. The other Vault Hunters go back to work as if nothing happened, but they appreciate moments like this, Pandora isn't so harsh after all.


End file.
